Chapter 30: Scott

Raven nodded eagerly, rushing off to his bedroom to try on the new clothes. As he disappeared from view, Athena turned to Shirley with a grateful expression.

"Thank you for everything, Aunt Shirley. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Shirley smiled warmly, placing a hand on Athena's shoulder. "You don't have to thank me, dear. We're family, and family always takes care of each other."

Together, they finished preparing dinner, the aroma of home-cooked food filling the air. When Raven emerged from his room, dressed in his new outfit and bubbling with excitement, they all sat down to enjoy the meal together.

As they ate and laughed, Athena couldn't help but feel a sense of contentment wash over her. Despite the hardship they faced, they were together, and that was all that mattered.

After dinner, they gathered around the table once more to cut the cake, Raven's eyes lighting up as he made a wish and blew out the candles.

The room was filled with warmth and happiness as they shared slices of cake.

The birthday party ended smoothly as Raven turned 11, and the school days continued.

Every day, Raven would wake up early, go to Knight Training School, and attend classes. At the same time, he also practiced the Wintermoon Spear Dance Technique and even did regular physical exercises.

First, he learned a lot about gripping techniques for a whole month. After that, he started learning about types of stances, thrusting, footwork, defense moves, hooking, side thrust, circular motion, and so on.

Like him, many other students also learned different kinds of Spearmanship, Swordsmanship, Archery, Dagger Arts, and other weapon arts from different Teachers and improved individually.

At the end of every month, a sparring session was also held among the students to rank their positions.

Although Raven managed to hold on against a few opponents during the first few months, his rank started to go down as time passed.

Before long, two years passed in a blink.

But he faced lots of hardships in the past two years. As days passed, no improvement could be seen in his physique or skills.

His physical and practical grades went down from the top ten to the 90th position. If not for his written exam grades, he might have ended up becoming the last-ranked student.

Not only that, he also got a lot of disappointed looks from teachers and even fellow students.

The one thing that made him angry was the reality of Academic life.

As more and more students started creating mana circles in their hearts, he became the only person with no mana circles.

Even the Headmaster Agatha summoned Athena to school and asked whether Raven wanted to drop out of the school.

He also started facing lots of bullying from his classmates and even ended up getting into arguments with Scott and his friends. What shocked him most were the reactions from his new class friends and Mary.

After finding out that he had no talent for becoming a Knight, they all started to distance themselves from him. Mary even started showing a cold attitude in classes and never even talked to him.

Only Chris came to class and talked to him from time to time.

But thanks to this unfortunate incident, Raven managed to find out who was genuine to him and who was only after benefits.

At the end of the second year, Raven only had three friends in the whole Academy.

One was a black-haired kid with a short physique named Dante. He was a commoner kid with little to no background. But thanks to the monocle artifact, Raven managed to check his physical status and noticed that he had a 'High' Rank Affinity in Wind Element. Not only that, he also had a 'High' Rank Sword Affinity and could be considered a top student in the classroom itself.

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At first, he was a hard-working student and even showed good progress in tests and practicals.

Although he wasn't in the top ten, his rank would always be around 20 to 30.

But things started to become complicated at the end of the second year.

The main reason was that Dante became Scott's main target for bullying.

Due to Scott and his friends bullying him constantly, his grades started to drop. Although Raven wanted to stop them, he also felt powerless and could only watch his friend suffer every day.

As days passed, Raven even noticed that Scott and others were extorting money from Dante and also bringing him outside.

During the third year, Dante's daily habits also started changing, causing him to worry more.

'Something is affecting his health too. And I can see him shaking often and also becoming a complete idiot. If this goes on, he might end up failing in all exams and drop out.' What made him angrier was that even teachers started using him like a free worker and always ordered around him like a servant.

'I feel like even Teachers are indirectly involved in this bullying.'

Next was Chris. Although he was in Class 4, he still came to Raven's class and talked with him always.

And, the final member was a girl named 'Daisy' from the 'Spade' Family. She was a pale-skinned girl with a lean physique and had a 'High' rank affinity water element. Unlike the other two, she rarely talked but always stayed next to his side during classes and even helped him during tests.

Even though Raven never interacted with her much, he considered her as his friend, too.

Another thing that hadn't changed all these years was his Etiquette Teacher, Elizabeth. She never gave up on him and always supported him in many ways.

One time, she even went into an argument with Professor Reid for treating him harshly.

"Haa! I'm not sure what she is thinking." Raven slowly stood up from the bench and looked outside from the second floor.

After he became a third-year student, his classroom was shifted to the third floor.

Thanks to that, he could get a clear view of what was happening in the courtyard and even outside the Academy.

"Hmm, Athena said that she won't come today to pick me up. Do I have no choice but to go by walking?" A frown appeared on his forehead.

He slowly stood up from the seat and picked up the school bag while looking at the wall clock.

"It's 6.30. P.M." Only then did he notice that all his classmates had long left.

Shaking his head, he walked out of the classroom, locked it from outside, and started walking on the long corridor.

Before long, he went downstairs through the bifurcated staircase, entered the grand foyer, and soon noticed that the whole area looked emptier.

As he was about to move out, a familiar voice came from behind and caused him to halt his footsteps.

"Raven? You haven't left yet?"

He turned around and soon noticed it was a black-haired young boy, around 115 cm tall and lean physique. He had brown eyes, a square face, thick eyebrows, and fair skin.

At that moment, he was carrying a handful of books and seemed to be moving upstairs.

"Dante? What are you doing here?"

"Professor Reid asked me to shift the books in his room to the fourth-floor library. I've been going up and down for more than an hour. But I only managed to transfer 20% of it." He said while walking awkwardly.

"Why are you even bother doing that professor's work? Even if you do all the work, he will never give an extra mark in the test." Raven shook his head in disappointment.

Meanwhile, a bitter look appeared on Dante's face.

"Well, you won't understand. Anyway, good luck with your studies."

Saying so, Dante turned around and started walking upstairs.

On the other hand, Raven looked at his back from behind and felt a sense of loss.

"Wait, I'll also help you." Saying so, Raven chased after Dante and took half of the books from his hand.

"Y-You don't have to." Dante tried to decline, but Raven shook his head.

"I'm helping you to at least ease away my guilt for not helping you all the time, Dante."

Dante didn't say a word and quietly started to walk ahead.

Raven also didn't talk further and helped him transfer all the books to the fourth floor.

By the time they transferred all the books to the library, it was already dark outside.

At that moment, no students or even teachers stayed within the Academy. Only the two gatekeepers stood near the compound gate and appeared to be talking with a few people.

As Raven and Dante walked out of the main building and moved closer to the compound gate, Dante's legs and hands started to shake.

"What is he doing here? Could it be? He wants to do a test at this hour?" He asked in a stiff tone and looked at the group of people near the compound gate with wide eyes.

Raven also followed his gaze and soon saw a familiar face among the group of five people.

"Scott? Test? What are you talking about?" What made Raven furrow his brows was that Scott was the only student in the group. The rest four were all grown men, including the two gatekeepers.

"Don't be nervous, Dante. And we are already outside the Academy. If he dares to do something, I'll tell my sister and let him know the consequence of playing with fire." Raven said in a cold tone.

All of a sudden, Dante gripped his hand and stopped him from walking.

"Don't do anything reckless, Raven. He is not someone you should offend. The reason he came here at this hour might be to get some help from me. I made some deal with him, so it's not a serious matter."

Even though Dante said in a strong voice, Raven felt the shakiness and trembling from his hand.

'Something is wrong...'